4 TO 6 MONTHS INTERNSHIP IN STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY
APPLIED TO MINERAL EXPLORATION
STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE NUGRUS AND QASAZ SHEAR
ZONES (NORTHERN ARABO-NUBIAN SHIELD): IMPLICATIONS FOR
BASE AND PRECIOUS METALS PROSPECTIVITY
Location: Aix-en-Provence (France)
Duration: 4 to 5 months (Starting May 2025)
Arethuse Geology is a geoscience service’s company providing technical services from all stages
of mineral exploration, resource estimation to mining design and processing. The spectrum of
commodities in which Arethuse Geology operates extends from precious, base and critical metals
to industrial minerals and aggregates. Based in Aix-en-Provence, Arethuse Geology works mainly
internationally, particularly on the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. This latter Arabian-
Nubian Neoproterozoic shield represents a critical challenge for the forthcoming years. To meet
Saudi Arabia's growing demand for metals, the company recently opened a subsidiary in Riyadh
(i.e. Arethuse Arabia). This internship aims to improve our knowledge regarding the genesis of
precious and base metal deposits in the Arabian-Nubian Shield, using a GIS (Geographic
Information System) approach, to better define its prospectivity.
For more than ten years, Arethuse Geology has been developing an in-house GIS for the Arabian-
Nubian Shield (ANS), enabling it to consolidate geological and exploration datasets published
and/or collected in the field, and to quickly access the various geological and geological features
for a given area within the shield. With this tool, Arethuse Geology can go beyond desktop reviews,
and is better fitting client needs.
This internship proposal covers a period from May 2025 lasting 4 to 5 months. The work will be
mainly based on compilation, harmonization and interpretation of structural datasets to produce a
comprehensive structural/tectonic map of the Qasaz-Nugrus segments of the Najd fault system in
both Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
With a dominant-transpressional tract of sinistral strike-slip faults and shear zones (Makroum,
2017), the Nadj fault system (650 – 560 Ma), represent one of the longest shear belt on Earth with
1200 km of shears along strike (Sultan et al., 1988). The Najd fault structural belts have undergone
major tectono-metamorphic events, including pulsed magmatism, hydrothermal activity, and
transtensive to transpressive tectonics (Bonnetti et al., 2023), which play a key role in the conditions
of ore genesis (e.g. VMS, porphyry and orogenic gold). Structural reviews of both Central Eastern
Egypt and Mydian/Hijaz terranes suggest an interplay between multiple tectonic events from early-
accretionnary structures and sutures zones (e.g. Yanbu suture), syn-convergence Nabitah-like
structures and late to post-collisional Najd-related strike-slip structures (Arethuse, unpublished;
Zoheir et al., 2019). In addition, recent prospectivity assessment and Pre-Red Sea Reconstruction
(Arethuse, unpublished), indicate that the Central Eastern Egypt and Mydian terranes shares
similarities in terms of tectonic and metallogenic history (e.g. Sukari, Al Wajh and Umm Lajj districts;
Leanderson et al., 1995; Zoheir et al., 2023).
Based on previous in-house prospectivity work done in West African for Li-bearing pegmatites
(Watine, 2023) and in the Nabitah belts of the Arabian Shield on geostatistical integration of strike
datasets for gold and base metals prospectivity (Oosthuizen, 2022, Madezo, 2022), this internship
will extent efforts towards the development of a Structural Complexity Index, that might explain
the genesis, and preservation of metallogenic pre- to syn-orogenic systems in Precambrian
terranes. In this context, potential collaboration with exploration companies might be consolidated
in direct link with current Arethuse’s commercial activities in the area. Particular attention will be
paid to build a hybrid prospectivity model(s) using both data- to knowledge-driven approaches to
implement the major components of the Mineral System Approach (McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014;
Watine 2023). The final goal of this project is to build a prospectivity model for the precious
and base metals based on the integration of structural parameters controlling the genesis
and evolution of these deposits. It will focus on the Area of Interest, the Nugrus and Qasaz
Shear Zone and will be ultimately extended to the whole Arabian-Nubian Shield, leveraging
the existing data collected and harmonized by Arethuse. Finally, those new datasets will be
re-integrated into the Arethuse’s GIS and associated metallogenic maps.
Supervised by Arethuse Geology staff, Arnaud Fontaine & Christophe Bonnetti as well as Bastien
Audran, post-doctoral fellow at LabCom Theia (GeoRessources at Université de Lorraine, Nancy).
Others academic collaborators might be also added during the project. The intern will produce a
poster and a PowerPoint presentation, that may be the basis for a scientific publication and / or
presentation in a geoscience congress yet to be defined. It will summarize the key scientific and
technical issues, methodology and results generated during the internship, and the implications for
the exploration of precious and base metal deposits in the Precambrian mineral belts of the Arabian
Shield. The intern may also be involved in Arethuse Geology's commercial activities from time to
time, depending on the needs of the team.
TASKS TO BE PERFORMED (NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST SUBJECT TO ADJUSTMENT AS WORK PROGRESSES)
Data acquisition and organization:
• Georeferencing and compilation of structural maps.
• Manual digitization of known and interpretative geoscientific features (lithological
formations, structural elements, mineral deposits, etc.) from various sources (geological
maps, scientific publications, geophysical data, satellite/Landsat imagery, etc.).
• Harmonization of the description of geological features from various sources according
to a nomenclature provided by Arethuse Geology.
• Complete the database of structural measurements with bibliographical references and
technical documents, according to the model provided by Arethuse Geology.
Building geological and structural maps:
• Interpretative litho-structural features controlling base and precious metal
occurrences across the Arabian Shield
• Typology of mineral deposit and occurrence of precious and base metals on the
scale of the Nubian Shield coherent with Saudi Arabia
• Local interpretation of aeromagnetic data for Saudi Arabia and Egypt
REQUIRED SKILLS
• Strong command of GIS software (this project requires daily use of QGIS software),
including coordinate projection systems and Python coding.
• Professional proficiency in English is essential.
• Good knowledge of geography, structural geology and metallogeny of precious and
base metals (e.g. gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, etc.).
• Knowledge of remote sensing and satellite/Landsat/Radar image processing.
REQUIRED PROFILE:
You are curious, proactive and rigorous. You have taken geology/metallogeny and geomatics
courses during your university classes and would like to understand and apply these skills to
mineral exploration. We are looking for a Master 1, Master 2 or 2nd to 3rd year of Engineer profile.
CONTACTS
Please send your CV and cover letter of the internship, to the following contacts:
Arnaud Fontaine Christophe Bonnetti
Structural Geologist / Metallogenist Senior Metallogenist
[email protected] [email protected]
Bastien Audran
Post-doctoral fellow LabCom Theia
[email protected]
REFERENCES
• Bonnetti, C., Fontaine, A., Berthier, C., Feneyrol, J., Corbet, J., Masson, V., Bosc, R.,
Hashim, A., 2023. A GIS-based mineral prospectivity analysis of the Neoproterozoic
Arabian Schield. Proceedings of the 17th SGA meeting, Zurich, Switzerland.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373454652_A_GIS-
based_mineral_prospectivity_analysis_of_the_Neoproterozoic_Arabian_Shield
• LeAnderson, P. J., Yoldash, M., Johnson, P. R., & Offield, T. W. (1995). Structure, vein
paragenesis, and alteration in the Al Wajh gold district, Saudi Arabia. Economic
Geology, 90(8), 2262-2273.
• Madezo, H., 2024, Métallogénie des minéralisations à métaux de base et métaux
précieux des ceintures néoprotérozoïques Nabitah, Sud du bouclier arabe, Rapport de
stage M1, Université de Rennes 1
• Makroum, F., 2017, Structural interpretation of the Wadi Hafafit culmination: a Pan-
African gneissic dome in the central Eastern Desert, Egypt. Lithosphere, 9(5), 759-773.
• Oosthuizen, B., 2024, Geostatistical Integration of Directional Data for Orogenic Gold
Prospectivity Mapping in the South Nabitah Belt, Saudi Arabia, M1 internship report,
Université Grenoble Alpes, 21 pages
• Sultan, M., Arvidson, R. E., Duncan, I. J., Stern, R. J., & El Kaliouby, B. (1988).
Extension of the Najd shear system from Saudi Arabia to the central Eastern Desert of
Egypt based on integrated field and Landsat observations. Tectonics, 7(6), 1291-1306.
• Watine H., 2023, Cartographie prédictive des pegmatites à métaux rares à l’échelle du
craton ouest-africain, Rapport de stage Projet de fin d’études ENSG, 51 pages
• Zoheir, B. A., Johnson, P. R., Goldfarb, R. J., & Klemm, D. D. (2019). Orogenic gold in
the Egyptian Eastern Desert: Widespread gold mineralization in the late stages of
Neoproterozoic orogeny. Gondwana Research, 75, 184-217.
• Zoheir B., Astrid Holzheid, Armin Zeh, Ryan McAleer, Mohamed El-Behairy, Ulrich
Schwarz-Schampera, Torsten Graupner, David R. Lentz, Fahui Xiong; The Sukari Gold
Deposit, Egypt: Geochemical and Geochronological Constraints on the Ore Genesis
and Implications for Regional Exploration. Economic Geology 2023;; 118 (4): 719–744.
doi: https://doi.org/10.5382/econgeo.4990
